David Shaw. The Stanford coach would seem a longshot candidate, but he is a San Diego native whose attention to fundamentals has won him admiration within football circles. Shaw, 40, is the son of former NFL player and assistant coach ...
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Jon Gruden. He won a Super Bowl (2002 season) as Tampa Bay’s coach. He’s 95-81 (.540) in 11 seasons, four with the Raiders (1998-2001) and seven with the Bucs (2002-2008). Gruden, 49, hasn’t coached since the Bucs fired him after ...
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Chip Kelly. Even though Oregon didn't finish the season unbeaten, he doesn't have much left to prove at the college level. Reports had him becoming Tampa Bay’s coach last offseason, but he decided to stay in Oregon. Impressed by Kelly’s ...
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Andy Reid. Not an inspiring nominee, to be sure, given the erratic play of his Philadelphia Eagles the last two years. But in fairness to Reid, the so-called dream team is an assemblage of miscast talents. Reid led the Eagles ...
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Mike Holmgren. He’s 64 and hasn’t coached since 2008, his final season with the Seahawks. For the last three years, he’s been the president of the Browns. Holmgren, who's being replaced by the Browns' new owner, said he’d like to ...
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‘Tis the season, and this Christmas it appears as though the angry villagers won’t wake up and find coal in their stockings. Because it appears frustrated Chargers fans are going to get their wish, one many of them have had at the top of their lists for years.

According to our Kevin Acee’s impeccable sources, Chargers President Dean Spanos will fire both head coach Norv Turner and General Manager A.J. Smith when this miserable, disappointing season comes to an end.

This comes nearly a year after Spanos had to make a decision whether to bring back the duo that has led the franchise through one of the more successful runs in its history. The pair’s detractors -- and there are many -- will view this as the end of an error.

Once the team began to slide again after some decent opening performances, there never seemed a doubt Turner was doomed. Smith was another story, but it now appears they both will go in tandem. Turner was Smith’s only hire as G.M. Perhaps it’s fitting they walk out together as multimillionaires. In the end, they couldn’t bring San Diego a Super Bowl champion, despite seasons when the pieces seemed to fit.

Spanos will be taking a risk here -- especially firing Smith -- but it’s going to be one very popular risk. It could be lessened if, as expected, current Director of Player Personnel Jimmy Raye takes over for Smith. It certainly would make the transition smoother.

No
64% (973)

Yes
36% (556)

1529 total votes.

The only question in this regard is how long the capable Raye will serve as GM. It was widely believed that, when Smith’s contract expired following the 2014 season, Dean’s son John, currently the team’s director of college scouting, would take over football operations. John has worked long hours learning the trade.

It's been said Raye and Smith often have had their differences in regard to personnel, but this is nothing new in the NFL, nor is it novel here. Smith came to San Diego from Buffalo as assistant to late G.M. John Butler in 2001. Butler was Smith’s great friend, but Smith has told me on more than one occasion there were times their disagreements would be so strong they wouldn’t speak to one another for days.

Following Butler’s death from cancer in 2003, Smith took over and built perhaps the most talented roster in the NFL, one that consisted of many Pro Bowlers. From the beginning, he was consumed with winning a Super Bowl, and in 2006, when the 14-2 team coached by Marty Schottenheimer couldn’t win a playoff game, Smith, convinced Schottenheimer couldn’t win a championship, did nothing to keep the venerable coach from the bricks.

Smith could not relate to Schottenheimer. In the end, they had no communication. Smith wanted a person he could confide in. Enter Turner, who had been fired from previous head coaching assignments in Washington and Oakland.

From the day Norv was hired, a segment of the Chargers’ fan base found it easy to despise him. Even when he took the team to the 2007 AFC Championship game in New England, when Turner was forced to play without tailback LaDainian Tomlinson, and go with gimpy quarterback Philip Rivers (who had undergone knee surgery earlier in the week) and hobbled tight end Antonio Gates -- and made a game of it -- his detractors never let up.